


Radio Signal

by zeltronparty (reanimatrix)



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Gen, Happy, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 17:44:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5879923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reanimatrix/pseuds/zeltronparty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doris, Silver Shroud fangirl, discovers the signal in Goodneighbor while visiting the lovely community with Danse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Radio Signal

**Author's Note:**

> I seem to be writing these in reverse order. Sorry!

Doris had debated the wisdom of bringing Danse to Goodneighbor. His presence would be comforting, if she was perfectly honest with herself. The place gave her the creeps, all those ghouls, and knowing it was a synth friendly area, not knowing who was real and who wasn’t. Not knowing who to trust, though really she knew she couldn’t trust anyone in that place. It was a matter, rather, of not knowing who to trust least.

She would have bought Preston, but Preston had been busy with Minutemen business, helping settlements stay safe and making sure raiders and other even more unpleasant elements stayed away. She could not deny that the Commonwealth in general needed him more than she did.

She wasn’t sure she trusted anyone else to have her back. Maybe Nick, she liked Nick, despite the fact that he was unfortunately a synth– but no, Nick probably had Kellog’s mind hiding somewhere, waiting to come out. _Which he’d been willing to risk for her_ , she thought guiltily. 

She absolutely did not trust Piper to not let her get shanked in a back alley for the sake of a good headline. She could just see it. “Vault Dweller Viciously Stabbed in Goodneighbor Back Alley”

That left her with Danse. They would stick out in this place, even if she had managed, after much debate, to convince him not to wear the power armor. Still, they could handle a fight, and she could trust him to have her back, that was the point.

Convincing him to go with her in the first place was easier than she had expected. He’d been surprisingly willing to assist her on something that was not really related to Brotherhood business. Though he had pointed out that if it would lead to finding the Institute, the Brotherhood would well benefit from it. She suspected he’d agreed to come along to make sure that was the case. Ah well.

Here they were, and she could sense the tension in the air. The stench was even worse than the rest of the wasteland, which said a lot. She took a moment to adjust, taking in the area. Nothing out of the ordinary for the place, at least. This time she wasn’t likely to watch some ghoul stab a man. She wasn’t sure whether she was disappointed or not.

“I don’t like this place one bit.” Danse said behind her, not even bothering to be quiet about it.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She replied, nodding her head slightly. They both had pistols within reach, though she’d had a hard time convincing him not to bring a more conspicuous rifle. She didn’t want a fight, she was just prepared for one.

“Straight to the Memory Den,” she said to him, “I will warn you the place is _weird_. Follow me. Don’t look at anyone or any _thing_ , trust me you’ll be happier for it.”

She plowed towards the Memory Den, and he dutifully followed, probably knowing she knew the area better. No one seemed to want to get in their way, but a couple drifters gave them dirty looks. 

Her Pip-boy had been picking up a signal on and off the last few times she’d been here, and while the buzzing and static was annoying, she had been more concerned with the rest of this hellhole to pay much attention to it.

“Silver–” she heard between crackling, then more white noise then, “Fat Fahy’s Folly!” followed by more white noise.

She stopped, so abruptly that Danse barely avoided walking into her. Eyes wide, she started tuning the Pip-boy to pick up the right frequency, her heart pounding with excitement, though she hopefully kept it well hidden with a look of mild curiosity instead.

“Is something wrong with your Pip-boy?” he asked, looking over her shoulder.

She shook her head and didn’t answer, pulling him over to an area where they were not likely to be walked into or harassed by the nasty people who frequented this place.

Finally she got the right frequency. Oh she recognized that voice. All three of those voices. The narrator. The Mistress of Mystery. The Silver Shroud. She felt a mix of happiness and nostalgia, something bittersweet. It was as if she was a kid again, sitting in front of the radio listening to the adventures of the Silver Shroud.

“Is someone in trouble? It sounds… strange, but like they could use assistance.” Danse said with concern.

Doris only shook her head, holding her hand up to ask for silence as she listened to the radio station. She waited until the episode was over, and turned to him. He looked both confused and intrigued, and she grinned gleefully. For once she didn’t care about keeping a serious demeanor in front of her superior. It was the Silver Shroud. Here.

“This is from– from my time,” she explained excitedly. “I’m not sure how this signal has lasted that long, but I listened to this when I was a kid. It was a fictional play. The Silver Shroud fought villains with the Mistress of Mystery and always saved the day. I loved this thing, I had all kinds of toys.” She left out the part where she loved it as an adult as well, and how she didn’t get the toys until she was no longer a child, or the fact that they weren’t quite toys. They were collectibles, for which she had paid Too Much Money.

“So it was a form of entertainment?” he asked, curious now.

She nodded. She had never been so forthcoming about the Old World, her old life. It wasn’t something she normally liked to think about. After all, she could never have it back. This, however, this was something she didn’t want to let go of. That she wouldn’t _have_ to let go of.

“I also remember reading the comics at base– they kept me sane so many times, I swear. Listen.” She whispered, holding a hand up as the narrator introduced a new episode.

He moved in closer, despite the fact that there was nothing to actually see on the pip boy. She felt a slight shiver, but she promptly forgot about everything else as soon as the episode started.

Every once in awhile, Danse would try to ask her something, but she would shush him, motioning for him to keep listening, which he would do without complaint.

“Why would they trust the decapitated machine’s head?” Danse asked, very seriously, when the episode was over. “It was obviously leading them into a trap.”

“Well,” Doris found herself pointing out equally seriously, “it’s not like they had very many other leads. Don’t worry though, they can handle anything thrown at them.” she assured him.

“So does it just end there? When do we get the rest of the story? What happens next?” he asked, the impatience obvious. Doris couldn’t explain why she found his interest so delightful, but it filled her with glee.

“Oh, we used to have to wait so long,” she said to him, smiling as she remembered. “We got an episode once a week. Spent the entire week trying to figure out what was going to happen next and solve the mysteries. We were almost always wrong.” 

“I’ve never seen you so excited about anything,” he commented, “obviously these stories mean a lot to you.”

“Well, you know. I was a kid.” she shrugged dismissively, “I was just surprised to hear it, that’s all.” she added quickly, suddenly feeling incredibly self conscious about how childish she’d just probably made herself look.

“Anyway,” she went on, “we need to get to the Memory Den so I can get the information I need and we can get out of this place.”

“Affirma–” he began, only to be interrupted by the familiar Galaxy News Radio announcement.

They looked at each other and back at the Pip-Boy as the narrator began the introduction.

“I’m certain we have enough time that another episode wouldn’t hurt,” Danse said to her “perhaps we’ll find out who this ‘Mechanist’ really is.”


End file.
